


C'Mon Baby (Light My Fire)

by popfly



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Firefighters, Firefighters, Helping Someone Else, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-18
Updated: 2012-12-18
Packaged: 2017-11-21 10:43:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,911
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/596818
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/popfly/pseuds/popfly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Liam wonders if Niall’s just the type that kisses his mates, if now that they’ve hung out a few times they’ve reached that level.</p>
            </blockquote>





	C'Mon Baby (Light My Fire)

**Author's Note:**

> Liam is a firefighter and Niall adopts a cat and names her Demi. Brie is an excellent pre-reader, cheerleader, and beta on top of all of that, and I love her dearly.

Liam Payne is twelve hours into his last fourteen hour shift of the week, planning out how he’s going to spend his four days off, when the call comes in for an animal rescue. He’s glad it’s something easy, something that doesn’t require him to be fully alert because he feels like he could drop off at any moment. His boots thud heavily when he swings his legs down from the desk, and he yanks his jacket from its hook as he calls for a crew member to ride along.

They don’t use the sirens, traffic is light enough that they don’t need them, and Liam parks near the small group of people surrounding a London Plane that is at least 15 metres high. Liam’s crewmate Zayn hops down from the truck and goes around the back to start raising the ladder.

Liam approaches the cluster of people on the sidewalk, sliding his helmet on. “Whose cat is up there?”

The woman at the front of the group shakes her head. “We don’t know who it belongs to, actually. We just heard it meowing and called it in.”

“It was making a right racket,” one of the guys, a sandy blond with a distinct Irish accent, chimes in. 

“Yeah, they’ll do that when they’re trapped. We’ll have it down in no time,” Liam says, and the guy nods, grinning. Liam can’t help but grin back.

He pulls on a thick pair of gloves that the lads at the station call the “claw guards” and climbs the ladder. The cat is small and striped black and grey, and it is making a “right racket”. It’s clung on to the bark of the tree, shivering, and it takes Liam a good amount of cooing and gentle tugging to get the poor thing unstuck. He tucks the shaky ball of fur into his jacket and zips it up before climbing back down.

A few more people have gathered by then, attracted by the ladder and possibility of neighbourhood gossip, and there’s a smattering of applause when Liam leaps down to the grass. He ducks his head, sheepish, and the cat’s head pops out of his jacket.

Liam covers it with his hand, giving the cat a scratch behind the ears. “We’ll have to put up some posters, figure out if this little guy belongs to someone. In the meantime we’ll take him to the shelter.”

“What if it’s a girl?” The Irish guy has his hands stuffed in his hoodie pockets and is still grinning. 

“Then we’ll take her to the shelter,” Liam says, and the cat squirms against his chest.

“I’ll take her,” Irish says, and holds out his arms.

“Uh, we’re really not supposed to do that,” Liam says, but Zayn comes up and reaches into Liam’s jacket, hauling the cat out and plopping it into the blond’s arms.

“If we get a hit on the posters we can come back, can’t we? Let’s go, I’m almost off shift.”

Liam scrunches up his eyebrows, but the Irish guy has his head tucked down near the cat’s and is murmuring something that sounds like “ickle kitty-kins” and Liam thinks maybe it’ll be alright. “Okay, yeah, that should be fine. Sir, we’ll have to get your information then, please. Name, address, phone.”

“Of course,” he says. “I’m Niall. Niall Horan.”

*****

Liam stops by the station on his second day off to see if there have been any hits on the poster. There haven’t, and Liam isn’t sure what the protocol is for an unclaimed animal rescue. He worries that Niall will be annoyed that no one has called, that even though he volunteered to take the cat he may feel stuck with it, and Liam thinks maybe he should check in. He feels responsible.

Niall answers his door with a grin, and Liam wonders if he’s ever not grinning. “Officer,” he says, then cocks his head. “Not sure if your lot is called officer or not.”

Liam laughs. “Just Liam is fine, actually. I wanted to check in on the cat.”

Niall opens the door wider and lets Liam into his flat, and Liam stands awkwardly in the entrance, toying with the zipper of his jacket.

“Did someone call for Demi?”

“Demi?”

Niall nods, heading into the living room and whistling. Liam can hear the scrabble of nails on hardwood and the cat careens into the room, pouncing on Niall’s feet. Niall laughs - a loud, boisterous noise - and bends down to scoop her up. “This is Demi. Demi, you’ve met Officer Liam.”

Niall holds Demi (interesting name, Liam thinks), out to Liam and Liam takes her in his arms. She immediately starts purring, and rubs her head up under his chin. He can’t help the smile that spreads across his face. Niall reaches out to smooth his hand down Demi’s back, and his knuckles brush against Liam’s chest.

Liam clears his throat. “No one has called for her. I’m not sure what to do from here, honestly. My station’s never had an unclaimed animal rescue.”

Niall shrugs, still stroking Demi’s fur. “I’ll just keep her. Always wanted a cat.” 

Demi’s vibrating in Liam’s arms, perfectly content, and Liam nods down at her. “I guess that’s alright then.”

“Cool. Want a beer?”

Liam looks up, startled, but Niall is still watching Demi, scratching his nails under her chin. “It’s a little early,” he says, and Niall looks confused.

“It’s after noon,” Niall says, and starts backing away, then turns on his heel and heads toward what Liam assumes is the kitchen. “Have a seat, Demi’s a cuddler, she’ll curl right up in your lap.”

Liam is so taken aback he plops down on the couch, and Demi does curl up in his lap, head on her paws.

He ends up staying for a beer, and then another, and Niall has a football game on so Liam stays through that, then they order a pizza and Niall puts in a movie, bringing Liam another beer.

Demi has switched back and forth from Liam’s lap to Niall’s and back, and then stretches out between them on the couch, front paws pressed to Niall’s leg and back paws pressed to Liam’s. Liam isn’t sure why he hasn’t left yet, but Niall keeps up a steady stream of casual conversation like Liam being there is the most normal thing in the world, and Liam doesn’t have anything better to do, so he just stays.

Liam nods off before the movie is over, and comes to when Demi stretches and her claws dig into his thigh. She gets to her feet and jumps down from the couch, padding off down the hallway. Liam has a crick in his neck, and the room is dark. He’s covered in a blanket, and when he turns his head he can see Niall curled in the other corner of the couch, mouth open and eyes closed.

Liam thinks this is one of the strangest situations he’s been in in a very long time, and yet he feels so comfortable he tucks his head against the cushions and goes back to sleep.

*****

The smell of bacon wakes Liam up, and he squints against the sunlight. He has a moment of disorientation (his bedroom doesn’t get that much sun, and who would be cooking bacon anyway) before he realizes he’s curled up on a couch with a fuzzy blanket tucked under his chin, and then remembers.

“You up then?” Niall sounds wide awake and cheery, and Liam’s still a little groggy and unsure. He sits up and pushes the heels of his hands against his eyes.

“I’m up, yeah.” He feels awkward, and blinks over at Niall, standing in the kitchen doorway in sweatpants and a tee shirt, barefoot and holding a spatula.

“Hungry?”

Liam thinks he should maybe go, he’s overstayed his welcome he’s sure, but Niall had covered him with a blanket last night and is making breakfast, so maybe it wouldn’t be weird to stay. He is hungry. And he loves bacon. “Yeah, starved,” he says, and smiles hesitantly.

Niall’s answering smile is enormous, and he twirls the spatula in his hands. “Kettle’s on for tea.”

Liam nods, and Niall goes back to the kitchen, Liam can hear things sizzling and his stomach growls.

They eat at the little table in Niall’s kitchen, their plates overlapping and Demi rubbing against their legs. Niall seems totally at ease having a near stranger in his kitchen eating his full English breakfast, grinning at Liam over the rim of his mug, and Liam has the same feeling he’d had the night before, of something inevitable just clicking into place.

“You have a shift today?” Niall asks, biting through a sausage.

Liam shakes his head, swallowing his gulp of tea. “Day three of my off days.”

“I’m off as well, thought I’d have a game of golf. Do you play?”

Liam goes still with his fork midway to his mouth, a bit of poached egg sliming off the tines and onto his plate. “I … do, actually.”

Niall grins again, and Liam grins back helplessly.

*****

Liam runs home to grab his golf gear and meets Niall at the course. They play eighteen holes, then go out for a curry and share an order of dumplings, their chopsticks clacking together when they go for the last one at the same time. Niall cuts it in half and laughs as he dips his half in the sauce. Niall tucks Liam into a cab with a warm hand on his shoulder and says “see you tomorrow, mate” and Liam doesn’t even question it as Niall closes the door and stands waving on the kerb.

Niall calls after lunchtime the next day and says, “Come over to mine? I’m making spaghetti bolognese and watching ‘Die Hard’.”

Liam goes. Niall points to the counter next to the range and Liam hops up, kicking his feet against the cabinets. Niall asks questions about work and Liam’s family, how long Liam’s been in London and what he normally does on his off days. By the time Niall is ladling sauce onto pasta Liam has told Niall more about himself than he has to most of his crewmates, other than maybe Zayn.

They eat in front of the TV, Niall batting Demi away from his plate with a laugh. Liam forks pasta into his mouth and ignores Niall’s foot tucked under his thigh.

Niall puts ‘Die Hard 2’ in without even asking, and Liam gathers their empty plates.

“You can leave them, mate.”

“You cooked, I’ll clean,” Liam says, and escapes to the kitchen, squirting dish liquid on a sponge and scrubbing sauce from the plates. The DVD menu plays a couple of times, and Niall is humming along to the theme music, and Liam feels anxious, like he does when the station gets an emergency call, his nerves singing under his skin.

After the movie Niall disappears down the hall and comes back with the fuzzy blanket and a couple of pillows. He props himself up in one corner of the couch and passes a pillow to Liam, and turns on Sky Sports. Demi settles down in a warm, fuzzy ball behind Liam’s knees and her purring lulls him to sleep.

*****

Liam wakes up with a start. His phone is buzzing in his pocket and the TV is still on. Something nudges his thigh and he reaches under the blanket, thinking it’s Demi until his fingers come in contact with a denim clad knee that isn’t his. Somehow he and Niall’s legs had gotten tangled up in the middle of the night, and Liam goes stock still, mentally following his own legs from hip to toe.

His foot is tucked right in the vee of Niall’s legs, and his toes are discovering that Liam is not the only person in the room who wakes up with an erection.

Niall has an _erection_.

Liam’s heartbeat takes off at a gallop, and he takes a moment to steel himself before looking up at Niall’s face. 

He’s still asleep.

Liam starts to slowly move his foot away from Niall’s groin, shifting back as quietly as he can. He needs to remove himself from the cocoon of blankets and body heat and get his shoes and be off, maybe leave an innocent note about how he has to get to the station early, which isn’t even a lie so he won’t feel guilty about it at all. He just needs to go; his phone is buzzing again and he knows it’s his alarm, and his knee is bending so slowly he thinks he can hear it creaking.

That’s when Niall’s eyes pop open.

Liam scrambles back so fast he tips right off the couch, pulling the blanket with him, and has to struggle for a moment to get his head unwrapped.

“You alright, mate?” Niall asks, concerned but laughing, and Liam shoots to his feet, backing towards the door.

“Fine,” he says, and his voice is ridiculously loud in the dark room. “I’m fine. I just, I have a shift, I have to go.”

Niall stands and stretches, and his shirt lifts up to reveal a flash of pale stomach and a light trail of hair that disappears under his waistband. Liam’s mouth goes bone dry and he shoves his feet into his shoes, groping behind him for the door knob.

“Have a good day at work, then,” Niall says, and he’s still hard in his jeans, Liam can tell, and he hadn’t even noticed he was looking at Niall’s crotch. He yanks his eyes upward and nods frantically, finally getting the door open and nearly leaping out into the hall.

He clatters down the stairs and out onto the sidewalk, and nearly sprints all the way home.

*****

No firefighter likes emergency calls, per se. They mean danger, possible injuries or worse. But when the phone rings twenty minutes into Liam’s shift he leaps for it like he’s drowning and someone’s just tossed him a life preserver.

It’s just a lift release, but Liam will take it. He lets someone else drive the truck, not trusting himself to navigate it through rush hour traffic. His mind is still reeling from the morning, cycling through snippets of the last several days, going around in circles that make Liam dizzy. He gulps tea in the back of the truck in hopes the caffeine will help him focus, and pushes all thoughts of anything but the job from his head when they pull up the office building.

Their second call of the day comes almost as soon as they pull back into the station, and Liam drives this time, the whirlwind of his thoughts calmed some by the work. The small kitchen fire is almost out when they arrive, but there’s smoke damage and some cleanup, and they get back just in time for lunch, smudged and laughing.

Niall’s in the kitchen with the watch commander, and Liam feels more panicked at the sight than he does fighting a four-alarm fire.

“What,” he says, half-question, unable to finish his thought. Niall’s beaming when he looks up, and the commander doesn’t even pause in his task of cutting sandwiches into halves.

“I brought lunch.” Niall spreads his hands to encompass the sandwiches and the bags of crisps and carrots laid out on the counter.

Zayn gives Liam a look, then moves forward to offer Niall his hand. There’s a flurry of introductions after that, the guys who’d gone on the call heading off to wash their hands, everyone grabbing food and straddling benches at the tables in the dining room. And all Liam can do is stand in the doorway, his mouth opening and closing like a fish.

The watch commander is the last out of the kitchen, a carrot stick chomped between his teeth, giving Liam a salute with his sandwich as he passes.

“Hungry?” Niall asks, and comes forward to hand Liam a sandwich. Liam holds his hands up.

“I haven’t washed,” he says, his voice croaky. He could blame it on smoke inhalation, but he has a feeling it’s more to do with Niall than the fire they’d just put out.

“I can see that,” Niall says, and lifts his hand towards Liam’s face. Liam sees it coming in slow motion, and he wants to move away, but his spine locks up and he stands there helpless as Niall wipes a thumb across his cheekbone.

Niall turns away, rubbing the ash onto a napkin and loading a plate with food. Liam stands there frozen, his cheek tingling, as Niall joins the crew in the dining room.

Niall charms the entire crew at lunch, and Liam trails him to the door afterwards, still feeling a little shocked, like he’d just pulled someone from a burning building.

“Why,” he asks, unable to finish a thought, let alone a sentence, holding onto the door like it’s the only thing keeping him upright. No one had ever brought him lunch, his family were the only people not on the crew that had ever stepped foot in the station, and Liam thinks that for as weird as it was to have Niall there it had at the same time felt like the most normal thing in the world.

“You’ve gotta eat, right?” Niall shrugged. “I figured this was the best way to see you while you were on shift. Otherwise I’d have to wait until next week.”

Liam can feel the blush spreading across his face. Niall makes it sound so simple, and Liam’s still struggling to figure it out. 

Niall leans forward while Liam is still thinking of a response and presses a warm, dry kiss to Liam’s mouth. He grins and ducks out of the door, and Liam watches him trot off down the street, his heart in his throat.

*****

Liams replays the kiss over and over in his head for the rest of his shift. He wonders if Niall’s just the type that kisses his mates, if now that they’ve hung out a few times they’ve reached that level. Not that Liam has ever reached that level with his friends, he’s only ever kissed his mum and his handful of girlfriends. But Niall was a jovial sort, always cheerful and grinning and invading everyone’s personal space like it was no big deal, maybe kissing was a part of that.

He debates asking Zayn about it, but can’t figure out what he actually wants to ask. “Do you ever kiss your mates?” isn’t exactly the kind of question you asked your coworkers without a bit of backstory.

They’re on their way out the door at the end of the night, when Zayn gives Liam a sort of odd pat on the back and Liam just blurts it out.

“Have you ever kissed one of your mates?”

The second the words come out of his mouth he wants to suck them right back in, but Zayn’s already laughing, coughing into his fist. A hot flush of embarrassment creeps up Liam’s neck, and he rubs his throat, hoping it’s dark enough on the street that Zayn won’t see it. Zayn must notice he’s uncomfortable anyway, because he chokes off his laughter, rubbing his lower lip with his knuckles.

“Is this about that bloke that brought lunch, the Irish one?”

“Uh,” Liam swallows and feels his throat working under his palm, “Niall, yeah.”

“I assumed he was more than just mate. Only other person that’s ever brought us lunch was the crew master’s wife.”

Realization doesn’t hit Liam like a truck, or a brick to the head, or any of the other cliches that he’s heard before. It more trickles over him like cold rain, making his skin prickle with goosebumps. He’d been dating Niall all week. The movies, the meals, the golfing. Dating!

“You had no idea?”

Liam laughs, but it’s shaky, as are the fingers that he lifts to rake through his hair. “I think I did, actually.”

Zayn nods, and gives Liam another pat on the back, then leaves him standing on the sidewalk, shivering.

*****

Niall answers his door in a baggy vest, grey sweatpants, and a hat jammed backwards on his head. He’s barefoot and holding a beer, and he grins so big when he sees Liam that Liam worries their teeth are going to clack together when he leans in to kiss him.

They don’t clack together at all. 

The feeling of stubble against his chin is new to Liam, having never kissed a man before, and he wonders if he should be freaking out about that. He doesn’t want to freak out about it, because kissing Niall is amazing. Niall’s mouth is soft, and tastes like Corona and lime. His jaw is scratchy under the tips of Liam’s fingers, but it’s still nice, a new texture that Liam wants to explore, sliding up to where the hair goes softer as it blends into Niall’s sideburns.

Niall hooks his arm over Liam’s shoulder and Liam can feel the cold press of the beer bottle against the nape of his neck, and when he tries to move away from it his chest bumps up against Niall’s flat, solid chest, and that’s new too. 

Liam feels a jolt when Niall’s tongue licks at the seam of his lips, and his mouth is parting before he can even process the thought that _holy shit, that is Niall’s tongue_ , and then it’s so good to have Niall’s tongue sliding against his own that he loses his ability to think altogether.

From then on it’s all sensation, until he’s pressed up against the wall just inside Niall’s apartment and Niall is pulling away, leaving Liam clutching at the air where his face just was and blinking like he’s coming out of a coma.

“Want a beer?” Niall asks, and Liam stares at him for a moment, his chin red from Liam’s stubble and his eyes bright. “You look like you need one. Bad shift, or was it the kiss?”

Liam splutters.

“That’s about the same face you had on when I kissed you at the station before. I thought afterwards that maybe I moved too fast. But I really wanted to kiss you, so.” Niall lifts a shoulder. “So I did.”

“I - I’m glad you did, I am. I just, this is new to me. With a guy, that is. And it’s not weird, which is actually really weird. Does that make sense?”

Niall laughs. “Yeah. I get it.”

Liam sighs, relieved, and Niall reaches out to grab his hand, lacing their fingers together.

“Come on. Let’s get you a beer. I can put on a movie.”

“I have to be up pretty early,” Liam says as he lets himself be tugged away from the wall.

“We’ll have to skip falling asleep on the couch then, go straight to bed when the movie’s over.”

Niall’s tone is nonchalant, but his face is guarded when he turns away from the fridge with Liam’s beer. A shiver of want crawls up Liam’s spine, and he chugs a third of his beer for courage before saying, “Yeah.”

They settle on the couch hip to hip with their beers, Niall’s arm stretched over Liam’s shoulders, Demi purring on their laps. When the movie ends and the credits roll, Niall leads Liam down the hallway to his bedroom, and they close the door behind them, leaving Demi out in the hallway.


End file.
